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Our Father 23 Mar 2019

Prayer & Spirit

Getting to know the Holy Spirit better requires prayer. I like to reflect today on the Our Father. On the prayer which Jesus taught to His disciples.

Rembrandt: Prodigal Son. Henry Nouwen observed that the painting has one male hand and a female hand.

Our Father

Your and mine Father. He is the giver of life. Are you looking for a mother? Consider the Holy Spirit. She loves you and wants to care for you. Just as the Father does. Of course, with praying for the working of the Holy Spirit. We can ask mother Mary's intercession.

Who art in heaven

The Holy Spirit comes from above.She is one with and with the Father. Heaven is a good place. And the Holy Spirit wants to prepare us for a good place. That is the call to holiness. A call to an excellent place.

Hallowed be Thy Name

The name of God is sacred. Our Jewish brothers and sisters did not dare to speak it out. We hardly know how to pronounce the name of God. But the Holy Spirit cries in us with unspeakable sighs. That may relate to the gift of tongues. We should invite the Holy Spirit to pray in and through us, invite Her to cry out in our hearts and souls. It is assumed to be beautiful and honoring God.

Thy kingdom come

How shall it come? Perhaps through the contribution of His children. And if I and you do not co-operate, it is harder for God to establish His kingdom in our neighbourhood. We need the gifts of the Holy Spirit to be equipped for this magnificent call.

Thy will be done one earth as it is in heaven

Perhaps what happens on earth, first needs to be modeled or agreed on in heaven. How do we know the heavenly plan? We need gifts of revelation from the Spirit and of course much is already expressed in the Bible.

Give us today our daily bread

Men does not live from bread alone. We do need the heavenly bread (Eucharist), but we also need to be reminded to the living (rhema) word of God. and that is again a task of the Spirit. She wants to feed us with what we need for life and service. That certainly incorporates the gifts of the Spirit.

Forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

The Holy Spirit can remind us and make us aware of our sins, so that we can confess and be forgiven. Therefore we must (preferably first) forgive those who have sinned against us.

And lead us not into temptation

We ask that the Holy Spirit to lead us and guide us in ways avoiding temptation.

But deliver us from evil

The Holy Spirit can lead us into a life that delivers us from evil. We need to follow her plan. And not the life and plans of the world (selfishness).

Amen

We need to agree with the testimony of the Holy Spirit (our Godly convictions) and respond to God's ways for our lives.